The residence halls are a lot different from classroom buildings," said Roger Davis, structural designer from the SDS architectural firm in Eau Claire. There's a lot more work involved with the residence hall. They did not want it to look like a barracks."

Davis used nearly 110,000 square feet of 8-inch County Materials Corp. hollowcore plank, the spans of which ranged from 5 feet to 29 feet in order to step outside their traditional range. About 1,000 square feet of plank is 6-inch solid.

"There were a lot of irregularities in the plan," Davis said. "Precast doesn't always lend itself to a lot of irregularity. But this hollowcore has worked out well for this use. "(Inside), there is a very low floor-to-floor height. It would've been very difficult, if not impossible, to do this without precast hollowcore."

The hall, which was begun in May and is scheduled for completion in August 2005, also uses 19 concrete columns (used primarily for external corners with windows on both sides), 233 lintels and 75,000 units each of Sahara- and Navajo-colored GlenGery clay brick. The variety of veneer finishes is an external testament to the hall's break from the norm, as is its suite-style arrangement of living quarters.